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GEMS Group News

Louisiana State University
Dr. Annette Summers Engel

Department of Geology and Geophysics
E235 Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
office:  225-578-2469  fax:  225-578-2302

Welcome Cassie Gray to the lab, as well as welcome everyone back from a long and productive summer!

Posted August, 2008


GEEK group featured on LSU Geology & Geophysics website describing trip to Slovenia!

 

 



Po
sted August., 2008


Congrats Angela on your graduation, as well as other Spring graduates!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted June., 2008


Welcome Amanda Jo Zimmerman and Lindsey Johnson to the lab!

Posted Jan., 2008



Xmas picture after Angela's MS thesis defense. From left to right: Lisa, Maureen, Brendan, Angela, Annette, and Chris.

Posted Jan., 2008


A lot of posters were presented at the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, CA in December. Good job!

- Peng, Bao, Anderson, Engel, Carbonate-associated sulfate in lucinid (Bivalvia) shells
- Garcia, Thieseen, Aronowsky, Anderson, Bao, Engel, Evolutionary implications of endosymbiont diversity in lucinid bivalves
-
Birdwell, Schulz, Engel, Autochthonous dissolved organic matter in karst waters: Evidence from fluorescence spectroscopy
-
Franks, Bennett, Omelon, Engel Environmental controls on methanogen viability in the hydrothermal waters of the El Tatio geyser field, Chile.

   

  

Po
sted December, 2007


Chris Schulz and Angela Garcia presented posters at the annual Geological Society of America Meeting in Denver, CO, in October. Congrats on getting it done and putting together two great posters!!!

       

- Schulz, C., and Engel, A.S. (2007) Relating microbial gene sequences to environmental factors: Cutting through the trees. Geological Society of America meeting, Denver, CO, October (Poster presentation).

- Green Garcia, A., Thiessen, M., Aronowsky, A., Anderson, L., and Engel, A.S. (2007) Implications of bacterial diversity within a modern lucinid bivalve habitat. Geological Society of America meeting, Denver, CO, October (Poster presentation).

Posted November, 2007


Welcome Lisa Boughner, Brendan Donnelly, and Kelley Gwin to the lab!

Posted August + October, 2007


 

 

June 2007, Environmental Microbiology, cover! The related article can be found at www.blackwell-synergy.com.

Meisinger, D.B.*, Zimmermann, J.*, Ludwig, L., Schleifer, K.-H., Wanner, G. Schmid, M. Bennett, P.C., Engel, A.S., Lee, N.M. (2007 In situ detection of novel Acidobacteria in microbial mats from a chemolithoautotrophically-based cave ecosystem (Lower Kane Cave, WY, USA). Environmental Microbiology. 9(6): 1523-1534. doi:10.1111/j.1462-2920.2007.01271.x  weblink. (*equal contribution)

Posted May, 2007


 

 

2007 LSU Structural Geology students and TAs, chilling on the Rio Grande, Big Bend National Park, Texas, at the end of their Spring Break trip.

For more information about this class, see Dr. Brian Darby's webpage.



 

Posted April, 2007


 

Congratulations to Angela Green-Garcia for receiving $1000 from the Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid program for her thesis research!


Posted April, 2007
                                                                                                                      Angela dissecting a clam for
                                                                                                                                                   her thesis research.


Welcome Kathleen and Maureen to the group!

Posted April, 2007


Chris, Robin, and Annette attended the "Time in Karst" meeting in Postojna, Slovenia. For pictures from caves in the region, go to the Cave Pictures (link).

Posted April, 2007


Chris Schulz will be presenting the poster, "Molecular investigations of Bacteroides as microbial source tracking tools in southeast Louisiana watersheds" at the Fall 2006 American Geophysical Union meeting, in San Francisco, CA.

Posted November, 2006


Dr. Engel visited Postojna, Slovenia, for an International Long-term Ecological Research Network workshop, sponsored by the National Science Foundation (to Dr. Dave Culver, American University), the Slovenian Research Agency, and Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

 

Pictured are Dr. Megan Porter (left) and Dr. Engel (right) at the steps leading to the Postojna Cave (Jama means cave in Slovenian)

Posted Dec., 2006


The GEMS group welcomes the new graduate student, Chris Schulz to the Department and to the Research Group.

Posted August, 2006


 

Congratulations to Robin Reger for receiving the James G. Mitchell Award at the National Speleological Society meeting in Bellingham, Washington. The award is given at the meeting to the best speaker under 25 yrs old, and a member of the NSS.

Posted August, 2006

 


Members of the GEMS group are presenting at several meetings this summer:

National Speleological Society Meeting, Bellingham, Washington:

      - Reger, R., Porter, M.L., Menichetti, M., Engel, A.S. Diversity comparisons between microbial mats and endosymbiont gut   
   communities associated with the cave-dwelling Androniscus dentiger (Isopoda: Oniscidae) from the Frassasi Caves, Italy
- Engel, A.S., Porter, M.L. Epsilonproteobacteria in terrestrial cave and springs with sulfidic water. 
- Randall, K.W., and Engel, A.S. Microbially enhanced carbonate dissolution in the Edwards Aquifer of Central Texas. 

International Symposium on Microbial Sulfur Metabolism, Münster, Germany.

  - Engel, A.S., Lichtenberg, H., Prange, A., Hormes, J. Sulfur speciation in naturally occurring filamentous microbial mats from sulfidic springs: A XANES spectroscopy study.

19th Annual Meeting of the International Mineralogical Association , Kobe, Japan (invited)

  - Engel, A.S., and Randall, K.W. Microbial colonization and weathering of carbonates in deep subsurface settings.

Posted July, 2006


Congratulations to Kelli Willson Randall for successfully defending her MS thesis "Assessing the potential impact of microbes in the Edwards and Trinity Aquifers of Central Texas" on Friday, March 17, 2006!  

Posted Feb, 2006


The children's book, Cave Sleuths (as part of the Science on the Edge series), by Laurie Lindrop, was released. The book describes exciting cave research, as specifically biospeleology and cave geomicrobiology research, and features the work of several cave scientists around the world, including the story of Dr. Engel's MS graduate research in the Movile Cave, Romania.

The cover photo, by Kevin Downey, is of Lower Kane Cave in Wyoming (link to Engel Lab cave photos), and features Dr. Libby Stern (in red) sampling the Upper Spring orifice water.


 

Posted Feb, 2006
 


Robin Reger attended the Molecular Geomicrobiology short course sponsored by the Mineralogical Society of America (MSA) at the University of California-Berkeley in December, before the American Geophysical Meeting. Robin received a scholarship from the NASA Astrobiology Institute to attend.

 
Posted November, 2005


 

GEMS lab group at departmental Halloween Party, 2005. Casper = Kelli; Jezabelle = Lindsay; Dead Caver = Robin; Bride of Frankenstein = Annette; Street "walker" with kitty ears = Angela (meow...)

 

 

 


Members of the GEMS group attended the Geological Society of America Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, and gave the following posters and papers:

- Randall, K.W., Johnson, L., and Engel, A.S. (2005) Assessing the potential impact of microbes in the Edwards and Trinity Aquifers of Central Texas.
(abstract link)

- Armbrister, O.L., Jr., Engel, A.S., Ferrell, R.E. (2005) Geomicrobiology: An essential teaching tool for GAEMP. (abstract link)
- Engel, A.S. and Porter, M.L. (2005) Exploring the microbial diversity of sulfidic karst springs and evaluation of microbial indicator species. (abstract link)

 Posted October, 2005


The GEMS group welcomes the new graduate students, Robin Reger (from Texas A& M Galveston) and Angela Green-Garcia (Univ. of Houston), to the Department and to the Research Group. Robin and Angela are both deciding what they would like to work on for their thesis research. Posted August, 2005


Dr. Engel attended the Joint International Symposia for Environmental Biogeochemistry (ISEB16) and Subsurface Microbiology (ISSM05) conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming in August. Three different research posters were presented  with collaborators from the Technische Universitat in Munich (TUM), the University of Texas at Austin, the University of New Mexico, and the University of Maryland - Baltimore County (see Publications).

After the meeting, Dr. Engel and her colleagues from TUM and UT-Austin went to Lower Kane Cave, Wyoming, to conduct field work, and visited Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park.

Posted August, 2005

 


Two of the GEMS group went to Italy (Engel and Reger) to conduct research in the Grotta Grande del Vento - Grotta de Fiume (Frasassi) caves near Gubbio in early July and early August. The two were accompanied by cave explorer Scott Engel and Dr. Megan Porter (Univ. Maryland), and met up with friends Marco Menichetti (Univ. Gubbio) and Art & Peggi Palmer (SUNY-Oneonta) to explore the cave. Research was funded by the LESEQ/NSF Pilot Fund for Exploratory Research. The goals were to collect microbial mat samples from the sulfidic water in the caves to compare the community molecular phylogenetics, and to test for the presence of "Epsilonproteobacteria".

Posted August, 2005
 


Kelli Willson received a scholarship from the Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid of Research ($200) and a scholarship from the South Texas Geological Society ($2000) for her MS thesis research. Congrats, Kelli!

Posted August, 2005


 

Please contact Dr. Annette Engel for more information regarding the research or photographs. Call (225) 578-2469 or email.
Address: Department of Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803.   
İAS Engel2007